He was the perfect gentleman, and my parents adored him. In time, I learned to adore him too. I married him. He was my forever.

Until the day he hit me.

Five years went by with the speed of a ticking clock, counting down my life one painful second at a time.

Until Danny. Danny saw me. Danny was my hero.

Danny was the one I was supposed to be with.

But now I’m broken, shattered into pieces too jagged to fit back together.

Isn’t that what fate is? Puzzles fit together by an unseen hand to form a life worth living.

So when fate makes a mistake, who fixes it?

With water to my neck, I turn the faucet off and can hear Danny splashing next door. “Are you done with your legs, too?” I ask him teasingly.

“Just finishing up the bikini area. Do you prefer a heart, or something a little more exotic?” he shoots right back, making me giggle.

“What does bottle five say for you?”

“Let’s see.” I hear glass clinking together. “It says . . . place on face for ten minutes. When dry, rinse off, and apply jar six. This is getting kind of ridiculous. I’ve never had to do this shit before,” Danny says.

“We’ll see what we look like when we’re done. My skin feels so smooth.”

“Yeah, mine too. I’m a facial away from losing my man card. Oh wait, that’s jar five. There it went, flying off to some well-deserving guy who’s eating a raw steak and roping a steer down the street. I may have to move to Mexico to get it back. How do you feel about matadors?”

I burst out laughing as I apply the goopy mess in my jar six to my face. “You can restore your card later. I’m sure there will be food to shovel and beer to belch.”

“You don’t get the man card credo. It’s an application process, Kinley. After all of these products, it could be months before I’m worthy again,” he explains.

“That’s terrible. I had no idea all it took was a few little jars.”

“Don’t underestimate the power of a good facial. I’m never living this down . . . I think this is avocado.”

“Well, I’m only in here to be close to you. This should show you how committed I am,” Danny informs me.

“Thank you for sacrificing your manhood to show me you care. That means a lot,” I joke.

I hear Danny sniff indignantly before he says, “As long as you value my surrender, it’s all worth it.”

Wow, what can I say? I really enjoyed Fate's Mistake. Call me crazy, but I'm actually drawn to books that contain issues that are a part of reality, such as domestic violence. Maybe it’s the notion that love isn't always easy. That in the real world finding your prince charming isn't like the books make it out to be. When we find love, it's not always beautiful, it can be the devil in disguise.

Fate's Mistake is about a young woman named Kinley (love the name) who meets Jeremy, a seemingly nice guy, good looking, career minded, polite and charming - every parents dream for their child.

He wore a tweed coat and slacks with loafers, which might have been fueling my hesitation. I was all about comfort; wearing cargo pants, camisoles, oversized sweaters and broken in jeans. My parents would love him. And because that thought ran through my head, I decided to give him a shot.

Kinley adores her parents: she has her reasons, (which you find out early in the book), which are quite sweet and she learns to adore Jeremy, just as her parents do and marries him, thinking he's perfect and her forever. But oh, golly gosh, he is far from perfect. It is here that everything changes.

The book begins 5 years into their marriage where Kinley is the "doting" wife, and I use doting loosely as she is forced to be a doting wife or heed the consequences. It is in the few hours of the day where she is allowed to leave the house that she meets Danny.

"Do you need me to call someone? A husband, or -“ He breaks off when I abruptly move farther away from him, putting me into the corner of the room. He puts his hands up slowly in surrender."

Kinley, who is (in my opinion) clearly suffering from battered wife's syndrome, suffers day in and day out, ostracized from friends and family, feeling totally alone in this world, but the goodwill and one gesture, one person "seeing you", one person to reach out and tell you that you aren't alone, even when you think you are, that changes Kinley's life and gives her the courage it try and get out.

Here was a real life person, with the means and motivation to change my course.

This book is about overcoming the depravities of a violent relationship. Don't get me wrong, it's also a love story too, but I think it's more about the journey of growing and relearning of one’s self when you've been broken and shattered into practically nothing. And that's beautiful. To learn how to be again. To discover who you are and what you saw for yourself to be all those years ago, instead of the shell of a person that you became when living with domestic violence. And then, once you've rediscovered yourself, finding a way to let others in, to feel that desire to love and be loved.

One thing I adored about this book was the slow building of the relationship between Danny and Kinley. There's no wham, bam thank you mam. They are friends, first and foremost. They both have just exited bad relationships and it is that understanding and support that helps each other grow and move on.

"I'm hanging up now. I can't believe you're out with your parents and you answered the phone." I say with an eye roll and a smile.

"But it was you."

The self-discovery aspect dragged on a little bit longer than necessary for me before the relationship blossoms, but overall it didn't stop me from putting it down. It was a page turner. It captured me and didn't want to let me go. There is a little bit of a paranormal twist which caught me by surprise since that's not normally a genre I read but it didn't seem to bother me too much. Danny has his own relationship problems, but is sexy, caring and down to earth and I loved how he treated Kinley.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You say you like me and now you want me to put out? What kinda guy do you think I am, Mis Mac?" he asks and I burst out laughing. I love the way he can take me out of the dark places in my head."

Fates Mistake is a beautiful, empowering novel that shows even when you are emotionally and physically broken to a point where you think there is no return, a brief meeting of one person, one small gesture can give you the courage and the belief that you are not alone and you can seek help. This is the second book in the Los Rancheros Series but can be read as a standalone. This is the first book by Brandace that I've read and will certainly be one clicking the first book in the series. Highly recommended you give this one a go :)

Brandace Morrow is a full time mom of four, and currently stationed overseas with her sexy soldier. Her recent obsessions are Maroon 5, rum and coke, and reading in no particular order. Despite being terribly awkward with social media, she's everywhere. Frequently subjecting the public to pictures of her minion's messes, and everything that is Momdom in the Morrow house.